Arthur

That reminded me of this story I read this morning, some bloke tried to remove a fallen branch dangling down from a live power line, lucky guy. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/luckiest-man-alive-cheats-death-14365157 .

Once Upon A Time in the West starts with two opening scenes either of which would be a cracking start to a Western, the gunfight at the depot and then the slaughter at the homestead. The camera pans up to the child murdering hombre’s face....OMG, No Way,....it’s Henry Fonda! And the final shoot out when Bronson places his harmonica between the lips of the dying Frank and finally he realises why this guy has been hunting him down. Classic. Worst? Brokeback Mountain. I have no idea what was going on in that tent, I just know I never, no-way, saw Big John Wayne do anything like that, NoSiree, I sure never did. Seriously, we watched it with some friends on DVD. I went out if the room for a few minutes and when a I returned I asked what I’d missed. Nothing! was the unanimous response. Slow and boring. .

It is indeed Ian, a GS (General Service) gun tractor. For really serious conditions it would need half a ton or so of something in the back to give better traction. As it was, I didn’t even need to engage the diff lock. .

Forest of Dean Bulletin. Popped out yesterday for a bit of a trundle round some of our local lanes. Hard packed snow on one long drag and 12’’ soft snow elsewhere made some of it strictly 4x4 territory. Elsewhere local farmers had cleared some lanes. Only met two other vehicles, local farmer in his John Deere tractor checking his sheep and a neighbour using a 4x4 loader clearing lanes on a council contract. Steep drop into a dip ahead followed by a mile long steady climb out, no stopping either in it out. Another descent through the forest ahead Increasingly deep soft snow ahead. Anyway, overnight a slow thaw set in, taps at our stables are running free for the first time in a few days, a steady drizzle earlier helped and now a weak sun has chipped in. I expect there’ll still be some lying around tomorrow. . .

Oxford do a Land Rover Forward Control Ambulance in Gulf War colours They also do the GS version which was the gun tractor for the 105mm light field gun and carrier for the 81mm mortar. They don’t currently do it in Gulf War colours. .

Yeah, that makes sense. Sounds like a finishing mill operation that takes in slab or coil from a steelmaking plant and the sulphuric acid is used as a cleaning and surface rust removal agent as part of the steel processing operation. There may be no metal making at such a plant though there may be reheating furnaces fuelled by either gas or, not so much now, heavy fuel oil, the latter being another incoming rail traffic. Steel making practice is pretty much the same the world over, the same process’ are used. The main differences between current practice in the US and the U.K. is that we now import all of our ore and coal. Your friend might be interested to know that for most of the 20th C., UK practice was very much influenced by US developments and practice. All of the blast furnaces currently in use in the UK, though much remodelled over the years, were originally to the design of the Arthur G. McKee Co. of Cleveland, Ohio. So basically, what a works in the US uses, a works of a similar nature here would use too. Finishing processes may be at smaller separate works or just part of a much larger operation. Oxygen in bulk transformed steelmaking in the 1960s and 70s and it is used in such volumes that most works quickly had on site or adjacent production facilities. .

We need to be clear what sort of steel mill your friend is taking about. Steel slab and coil would generally only go into a steel finishing mill, possibly for rolling into something else, e.g. hot rolled coil for cold rolling, slab to plate, or for some kind of special treatment or coating. The kind of works producing slab and coil tend not to take in semi finished steel products, they process their own output. Essentially, a works taking in regular bulk supplies of coil or slab would not be making it’s own iron and steel. It also partly depends what era we are talking about too, the present day I presume. .

Not used them for a while but I was a regular mail order customer at one time and my experience with them was always positive. They are a reliable and reputable company. .

Yes, it’s a Ford AA, my neighbour has one that he is currently restoring. .

Well done, that sits much more comfortably. A couple of bits of additional information about the docks if I may. The timber works served by the overhead travelling crane on the harbour, top right in the aerial photo, was of strategic importance during WW2 being a plywood manufacturing facility supplying sheet for the construction of the Mosquito fighter bomber. The crane has long gone but many of the buildings survive in a largely dilapidated state. Recent activity at the harbour site includes the replacement of the metal swing bridge. It was missing for some months earlier this year whilst being refurbished by local bridge builders Fairfield Mabey. Mabey‘s closed down their riverside site in Chepstow a year or two back and their bridge building operations were moved to Lydney Industrial Estate, just beyond the former plywood works. The bridge was refitted a couple of months back. The outer lock gate has been left open for some months now whilst repairs to the lock walls have been underway. It has been interesting to visit the site at high and low tides to fully appreciate the tidal range of the Severn in the outer lock basin. Just to the north, right in the aerial photo, stands Naas House. In 1771 a daughter of the house was murdered close by as she returned home after dining at Lydney Vicarage. A local man was later convicted of murder and executed in 1772. The area is reputedly haunted. Even though recently refurbished, it’s a grim looking place from the rear. .

Scalelink do some etched brass glazing bars. You get two sizes on a single sheet. http://www.scalelink.co.uk/acatalog/General___Scale_1_76__OO__Varieuse.html Scroll down to item Ref: SLF027 .

Went to pick up some glass this morning. Whilst chatting to the guy in the office his wife came with their mid morning snack, toast hot and buttery, and coffee. Mmmmm, by the time I got home I’d have made a pact with the devil for a piece of toast. Fortunately for my soul, we had the essential ingredients and equipment at hand. .

A consideration about windowless outbuildings, or one with windows covered up. I have a well-insulated, sectional wooden building as a music studio (okay, I play the drums...) which, to improve sound proofing, is windowless. Obviously with the lights out it is completely dark inside. In the event of a power cut, and to prevent me breaking my neck whilst stumbling over cymbal stands etc., I have a rechargeable light constantly plugged in which has a sensor and comes on if it loses power. Just a precaution worth thinking about should you go down that route. .

Whilst out and about could you keep an eye open for a letter C and a letter S, this lady has lost them from her t-shirt. .

On a related note, I recall many years ago, without going into too much detail, we were giving basic ‘security suggestions’ to a small operations (security wasn’t our core business). One suggestion was the growing of spikey, prickly bushes like pyrocanthus under windows etc. One partner snorted and responded that prickly bushes were no ‘effin’ good, the last time they'd had a break in the scrotes had driven a transit through the doors.... I miss Salford

Is it just possible that, for example, he saw a tender loco with a second, loose, tender, parked up in front of it. A quick glance, a look over parked wagons, might give the impression of a Garratt? .

To be fair, unless he’s a wind-up merchant, it does seem an odd thing to claim without some basis in truth, even if a misremembering or a genuine mistake. Why would he? Still, the photo would prove something should it ever emerge. .

That reminds me of a relative of my wife’s. Very much the modern ‘liberal’, she has always worked in social services, largely with children, and is seemingly full of compassion and angst for the problems of others, yet was a ‘cold’, near absent, mother to her own children. We always found it a very odd combination. The compassion seems all in the head rather than the heart. .

She reminds me of one Radio 4 presenter that I really cannot bear, Woman’s Hour presenter, the former Mrs. Adrian Chiles, Jane Garvey. She is the most achingly irritating, PC presenter anywhere in the known universe. Sometimes she can barely speak while her mind stumbles around to phrase her words in the most right-on, non offensive, all inclusive, metropolitan manner. She has a sneering anti-male attitude, though I’ve equally heard her be rather snotty with women who don’t fit her view of the ‘wimminhood’. As an example, there was a debate some while back about young women who had chosen not to have children. One was relating how she had expressed her intentions on social media and had received an avalanche of offensive abuse. In leaps Garvey, “from men no doubt”. The young woman paused in surprise before responding, “Er, no, almost exclusively other women”. .

The only surviving U.K. industrial Garratt at this time was 0-4-0+0-4-0T William Francis which worked at Baddesley colliery in the Midlands until 1965. By 1968 it was in preservation at Bressingham in Norfolk, seems unlikely it went via Guildford shed. Seriously, rather than asking here, just get your mates photo, the one “he’ll show you at some stage”. If it exists not only will it answer the question definitively, it will be photographic gold dust. Every magazine will snatch his hand off wanting to print it, and it will add to the known history of the Garratts. Pending the production of this mythical photo, I think the current phrase is Fake News. Happy to have my scepticism proven wrong. .

The standard grey/green is more than adequate. I’ve used the others on occasion but it’s the grey/green I always have in stock. .

Indeed Mike, a gentleman never likes to disappoint. .

Swayed by the mood of romance in the air, the Department of Work & Pensions have tweeted a reminder to those in ‘undeclared’ relationships; Declare Your Love .

Still wondering how best to surprise and delight your Valentine? And they say romance is dead. .

Brymbo was part of the GKN empire and produced engineering steels in it’s arc furnaces, it didn’t make steels for the general section and plate market. GKNs East Moors and Castle plants in Cardiff did that. It had been the UKs smallest integrated works into the 60’s, when it still operated it’s single blast furnace, and didn’t have finishing mills, it rolled semi-finished products, blooms and billets. Much of it’s output went to other GKN works for further processing into various GKN products, from fastenings, like nuts and bolts, and a whole range of engineering products including items for the automotive markets. Many of these works were situated in the West Midlands so a significant amount of Brymbo’s output made it’s way there. Others may have some more specific traffic info.